April 28th began in a bittersweet fashion. The excitement was palpable on the way to West Palm beach for two days full of music and good times. Just as reference let me say that Soyprensa’s headquarters in the U.S. are located in Miami which is proximately one hour and forty minutes away from West Palm Beach. It was just before half of the way when the news broke out, the Flaming Lips were canceling their performance on the Sunfest due to an emergency in which Steve Drozd had to be rushed to the hospital. TOTAL BUMMER. The flaming Lips were the main reason for many fans to buy tickets to this festival. Now, the anger that you are reading doesn’t have anything to do with the festival, or with the band, it just pain sucked and i had to put it in this article somewhere. So anyway, we scratched covering the second day when we heard the news (Sorry ZZ Top fans). After the initial shock, however, we ponied up and went for the opening day which actually had a pretty decent line up.
The first stop after getting to the festival was These United States. This is a band from Washington D.C. and they play a really good style of rock, mixing classic, indie and southern rock. The band played at 5 in the afternoon and sadly the crowd was just a handful of people at that time. The band seemed to not really care and they put a great performance and as a first time listener , I can safely say that their music wasn’t bad at all.

Next, after an hour break, we went to check out Constellations. Constellations, along with These United States, are up and coming bands that have been touring for most of the year and will be performing in big stages later this summer such as Lollapalooza. Constellation’s music consisted in a mix of hip hop, rock and funk, not my favorite mix but the crowd seemed to dig them. Other than making me fall in love with one of the band’s background singers, the band offered nothing new and their set was a little monotonous.

When the constellation’s were done with their set a bigger crowd gathered in the Tire Kingdom stage (the other one was the Bank of America stage. so much for indie music festivals huh?) to wait for the great We Are Scientist. The band from California took the stage the crowd finally seemed like a music festival crowd. The band started at eight on the dot and went into a high energy, punkish guitars and full sound that are characteristic of We are Scientists. After the fist couple of songs the audience was red hot and the band got more comfortable on stage with their comedic antics. They even poked fun at the Sunfest by saying that every time they banter between songs they were required by the festival to plug a different product. They played for an hour and a half, but sadly a big chunk of the crowd left because they were scheduled to play until 9: 30 and Weezer started to play at 9 on the other stage…bad timming.
At 9 P.M. Weezer took the stage, after the worst introduction by two very annoying local DJs, they launched into Hash Pipe and followed with Troublemaker and Surf Wax America to kick off their set. Not too shabby. Weezer played hit after hit and some people were really into it. Rivers Cuomo did his best to be a lead singer by putting aside his functions as a guitar player and he actually did pretty good. They did get in the set a couple of their new song from the not-so-great Ratitude, but mostly their set consisted in an abundance of songs from the blue album, Maladroit, and well known singles such as Beverly Hills and Island in the Sun in which Cuomo played all the instruments by looping them and making the crowd sing the very famous “Hip Hip”. One of the most memorable and eclectic moments of the night came when after the first encore break Weezer covered MGMT’s Kids with an insert of Lady Gaga’s Pocker face in the middle of the song, with Cuomo sporting a blond long hair wig. The band Sign off with Buddy Holly sending all concert goers home happy.

It is hard for bands to come to South Florida since Florida’s panhandle is very out of the way from the rest of the country. Hundreds of times we have seen bands map their world tours and hundreds of times we have been left disappointed to see the schedule cities list with ours omitted. It’s a sad thing for the music fans in this part of the country.
But as all sad stories this one brings some lights among the shadows, enter the good people at West Palm Beach’s Sunfest. Taking off where Langerado dropped the ball last year, the Sunfest is bringing some of the biggest rock acts to our state. Since 1982 the West Palm Beach music festival has been entertaining Floridians and visitors that are not only looking for great bands to check out, but also for the wonderful art exhibits and great food.
Sunfest 2010, taking place from April 28th to May 2nd, is looking all kind of good. Not only will be taking place in the beautiful waterfront of West Palm Beach, but it will bring two of the biggest acts in rock music. During the opening night, Weezer will be playing. Rivers Cuosmo and company will bring their melodies and catchy guitars to Florida after a hiatus of more than 4 years when they were promoting their album Make Believe. Now, after two more albums under their belt, the veteran rock band is ready to rock Floridians once more.
The main dish for me comes during the second night of the festival. The Flaming Lips from Oklahoma will be performing. The Flips are a great psycodelic rock band that put so many props in their concerts that makes them unforgettable. I’ve seen this band four times in the past, and can’t wait to see them at this year’s Sunfest. Nice grab Sunfest! One bummer is, though, that the Flips are going to be conflicting with rock and roll legends ZZ Top. I’ll try to catch them both somehow.

The summer of music festivals in the U.S. is officially on its way with California’s Coachella kicking it off this next weekend. Here in SOYPRENSA we get very excited about this time of the year, not only here in the U.S., but in Europe as well. This year SOYPRENSA will be bringing you full coverage of some of this festivals via tweeter and doing reviews of these great shows.
Our first target here in the United States is Perry Farrell’s Lollapalooza. Lollapalooza will take place at the Grant Park in Chicago, Illinois on the weekend of August 6th to the 8th. Known as one of the most respected and longest running festival in the country, running since 1991 and being reborn in 2003 due to a hiatus from 1997 to 2003 (Probably due to Limp Bizkit and Creed’s best efforts to destroy music), the festival has been the platform for bands such as The Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam, The Red Hot Chilly Peppers and Nine Inch Nails.
This year Lolla’s line up can make other festivals jealous because it has it all, a big band reuniting, hipster’s number one band, up and comers indie music bands, bona fide alternative stars and Lady GaGa. The announcement if Lady GaGa as one of this year’s headliners stirred controversy and was quickly defended by Perry Farrell in an interview for Rolling Stone, Farrell said :

“Lady Gaga represents to me the music industry today. She’s a good representation of where it’s at and where everybody’s trying to get to. If you look at the Grammys, it looked like everybody was trying to catch up to Lady Gaga. We just see the vision of Lady Gaga in Chicago in Grant Park surrounded by all those beautiful buildings—we all just thought that it would be an epic performance… She had a real interest in doing it as well because she felt like we had given her a break to go into the world of legitimate music, you know not just pop.”

Ultra Festival is one of the biggest electronic music festivals in the world. It takes place annually in Miami, Florida and it is part of the Winter Music Conference. Ultra has been gracing the city of South Florida for since 2001, and it has served as a platform for the careers of multiple electronic musician and DJs. Being so close, in both distance and type of music, the festival’s tickets sold out completely. Electronic music fans, scenesters, frat boys and yes, South Beah douches were left outside the gates heartbroken and buying fake tickets. The lines to get it were enormous and the traffic to get in and out of the festival area was backed up for miles, but somehow people managed to go, dance and have a great time.
Ultra was marked by many unbelievable events, including a great collaboration between the Swedish House Mafia and Florence Welch from Florence + the Machine. Other great acts included DJ Tiesto, The Crystal Method, Felix the House Cat, Carl Cox (Who put a great show full of lights in a tend named after him), and the big draw for the festival on the last day Deadmau5. It was great to see the big number of electronic music fans wearing mouse ears during a pretty hot day in South Florida. The show, as it was expected, was full of energy, great stages and a huge crowd. Even with all these huge electronica names, there was some room for indie dance/rock bands who did an excellent job keeping up with the DJs and getting new fans. Two of these bands that were a complete tread to see were Passion Pit and the great Ghostland Observatory.
Passion Pit played during the first day of the festival on the main stage for a little under 45 minutes. The festival was somewhat less crowded on Friday than it was on Saturday, therefore it was a little more comfortable to look at the bands. Passion Pit knew that their set was short and that most of the crowd was there to see Tiesto and the other artist who were more electronic, so they went for the jugular. The band played fast, loud and dancy. By the end of their set the crowd definitely knew who they were and what they were all about.
It’s been a great year for Ghostland Observatory, Not only did they embark in long North American Tour but the duo also co-headlined Austin City Limits along Pearl Jam and they closed Ultra along with Deadmou5. The duo from Austin, Texas grabbed a big chunk out of the Deadmou5 crowd with their funk electro-rock and did a great job of adding new fans from the dance fans. By the time the Observatory took the stage (11:15 P.M.) The crowd had been under the sun for over ten hours and they were ready to release all the energy and frustration that they had collected during their day at the park, and the band was a great outlet for it. People dancing everywhere to the sounds of Sad Sad City and Silver City. At the end, between Deadmou5 and Ghostland Observatory festival goers went home happy, or perhaps just to the next party.

April 9th was the date that Of Montreal and former member of the band James Husband took the Fillmore in Miami Beach by storm. It was only a year since Of Montreal came around South Florida and kicked all of our asses with an amazing show. Little did we know that they would be back in such a short period of time to do it again. As people filed in the Fillmore the excitement was slowly building up. The smell of cigarettes and beer, and the sight of colorful characters set the scene for an amazing night.

The night started around 8:30 P.M. with James Husband, recording name of James Huggins III, former member of Of Montreal and of multiple Elephant 6’s bands such as Ladybug Transistor and The Essex Green. By the time Husband took the stage, the Fillmore was half full. The medium size crowd was very supportive of the band and really absorbed the essence of what Husband’s music was all about. During half of Husband’s set people starting to dance to the catchy pop sounds and the energy and excitement of the fans started to explode with dancing and clapping. Husband finished around 9: 20 and then the crowd really got excited.
Around 9:50 P.M. the lights were down. The crowd exploded in a cheer and a man with a tiger mask came on stage and tried to pump up the crowd as if was even possible to do it more. Finally We saw the band walk on stage, and at the end, Kevin Barnes. Barnes picked up the guitar and dig into the song For Our Elegant Caste from the band’s latest album Skeletal Lamping. The set was heavy on Skeletal Lamping but The band did switch gears constantly to crowd pleasers from the great record Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?. There were also props and some dramatic place onstage. There was a point during the performance in which some extras came out onstage and, with Barnes on the lead role, acted out an impromptu support group. The scene ended with Barnes, who was supposed to be the facilitator of the group, shooting all the members with an invisible gun. Other props, common of the band’s shows, were people dressed up, psychedelic projections and a structure in which Barnes was crucified. One of the brightest moments of the show came during the great song She’s a Rejecter when three of the band’s helpers came out dressed with masks and blond wigs with an industrial vacuum cleaner. The vacuum was set in reverse and filled with white feathers that the crew blew over the audience making it feel surreal, which is kind of what Of Montreal is all about.
In general was a great show. Everybody went home happy, as Barnes, saying that the band likes to do a cover as their last song, send us off with a great rendition of Jackson 5’s I Want you Back.

Of Montreal is pretty well known thanks to the lending of their song Wraith Pinned To The Mist And Other Games to the restaurant chain Outback for their comercial. However his band for Athens, Georgia has a lot more to offer. Their Albums Satanic Panic In The Attic, The Sunlandic Twins and Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? had been critically acclaimed as well as commercial successful. Of Montreal is part of the second wave of the recording company Elephant 6, which started the careers of very influential indie rock bands such as Apples in Stereoand the now legendary Neutral Milk Hotel. Of Montreal took note of these senior artists and were able to transform the aspect of their music into something that would work for them. The result: a pop sound which thanks to catchy rhythms, great melodies and sing-along chorus has skyrocket the band to the top of American indie music.
Our friends at the Fillmore in Miami Beach are bringing this great band to South Florida next Friday (the 9th of April). Tickets are available thought Livenation and in the box office at the Fillmore. Just a last word of advice, I have seen this band twice, and i can tell you that they are a band not to be missed. You’ll never know what Of Montreal will come up with, as you can see it here.
Here is how the Of Montreal tour looks like:

For the second time in less than two years Rodrigo Sánchez and Gabriela Quintero brought their acustic metal, don’t-call-us-flamenco, unusual guitar styles to South Florida. The duo played at the Fillmore in Miami beach before a big and enthusiastic crowd compose of mostly indie music listeners and guitar players (There was a point in which Rodrigo asked if there was any guitar players in the audience and everybody but me raised their hand). All the time before the show started people were trying to get as close to the stage as possible to appreciate R&G’s skills up close.
The show started at around 8:30 with The Alex Skolnick Trio from New York. Alex Skolnick is a former metal guitarist in San Francisco who decided to leave his metal roots behind in California when he moved to New york city and it was there that he formed his trio and started playing a kind of modern Jazz. This similarity with Rodrigo and Gabriela (They started playing metal as well) is what allowed the transition between the two bands to be smooth, as well as the crowd to get into Skolnicks’s music.
A little after 9:30 Rodrigo y Gabriela took the stage and the enthusiastic crowd was more than ready for them. Concert goers were going bananas for every solo and for all the percussion that Gabriela did by hitting the guitar with her hand.If you never gone to a Rodrigo y Gabriela concert there’s a couple of things you should know. First of all, these guys are real good guitar players. It’s pretty crazy to see them play their instruments in such a way that feels full…only with two acoustic guitars! Granted they used a flamenco cajon as a percussion instrument during a couple of songs, but for the bigger part of the show they relied on the guitars. Secondly, They do a lot of covers. They are well know for their great renditions of Metalica’s One, Pink Floyd’s Wish you were here and Led Zepelin’s most guitar cliche song Stairway to heaven (Which they make an unlikely fresh version of the classic). However, they just did a few snippets of Seven Nation’s army and Santeria. Just long enough to keep the people interested. And the final thing you should know about R&G is that you have to see them to really appreciate the full effect of their music. Only live you can feel of how much closer to hard rock they are than to acoustic music. I highly recommend you dear reader, if you have the chance to see them in concert, do yourself a favor and do no skip these guys.